Call Me

The room was quiet, still. She sat unmoving on his bed watching the dust particles moving slowly through the few shafts of light entering the broken slats of the blinds. She'd nagged him about those blinds time and time again. He just smiled at her irritation and explained that it didn't bother him, that there were other more important things he wanted to spend his money on. After a while she'd dropped it recognizing a lost cause. The broken slats were oddly comforting to her now.

He was a collector. Not books or records, old wines or flashy cars. He collected kids meal toys. McDonalds and Burger King were his preferred stomping grounds but he wasn't a snob, there were representatives from Wendy's and Jack and sometimes even the occasional cereal box toy. The fact that these collections were actually worth a pretty penny never failed to amaze her. His pastime of choice was wheeling and dealing on ebay and she had often sat next to him slack jawed at this new and alien world.

Barney, Homer's perpetually drunk friend, was their favorite. He didn't have much value associated to him yet and the collection was incomplete but Barney was not for sale. Her blood sugar dropping rapidly one day, she found herself eating a Whopper Jr. with cheese at a Burger King just down the road from her apartment. The guy next to her had a kids meal and was gleefully unwrapping the toy. She tried not to stare. He caught her anyway. The toy was a talking Barney and before she could blush at being caught staring, the guy grinned, winked and held Barney up.

"Call me." followed by a loud belch.

Inevitably, she had called him.

She smiled for the first time in a week sitting on his bed watching the dust settle. She'd come to sit amongst his collections hoping to wrap enough of him around her to get through saying goodbye. She'd come for Barney. The toy's slurring voice echoed in the stillness. "Call me." She wished she could.